Webinar: Campaigning for Conscientious Objection – Strategic Litigation

WRI, Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) and International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) start a new webinar series on campaigning for conscientious objection to military service.

As part of the webinar series, we are holding four events to take place in February, March and April, each focusing on a different aspect of campaigning for conscientious objection. The webinars will include presentations by experts in the field and activists from different countries explaining their experience and campaigns.

The first of our webinars is taking place on 3rd February Wednesday (1pm UTC), focusing on ‘strategic litigation’:

• What is strategic litigation as a campaigning strategy?
• In what ways can it be relevant for defending the right to conscientious objection?
• What are the examples from other countries?

Click here to register our webinar here.

This event will be in English and Spanish (with simultaneous translation).

Speakers

Addressing the questions above, we will have presenters from Geneva (Switzerland), Seoul (Korea) and Bogotá (Colombia):

• Rachel Brett, WRI’s representative at the UN and a member of WRI’s Right to Refuse to Kill Committee will give an introduction to the subject with an overview of what is meant by ‘strategic litigation’ and how it’s relevant for campaigning for the right to conscientious objection.
• Jungmin Choi and Yongsuk Lee, from World without War based in Seoul, will tell about their campaigns and how litigation was part of it. World without War has been campaigning for the rights of conscientious objectors in South Korea for more than 15 years. Their campaigning has been crucial in achieving the recognition of the right to conscientious objection in South Korea in 2018.
• Maricely Parada Abril and Alonso Santamaria Quiroga from ACOOC - Colombian Collective Action of Conscientious Objectors will tell about their campaigning in Colombia and how the use of litigation was relevant in their successes to intervene cases of forced recruitment (which was a significant problem until mid-2010s) and the introduction of the right to conscientious objection in law. 

Date and Time

3rd February, 1pm UTC (2pm CET, 8am Colombia, 10pm South Korea).  

Registration

This event is free however registration is required. Please use the link here to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkceGrqjMpHtyH2XE-FkDlKrzrrQCfZgFr

The event will last for 1 hour and 30 minutes including Q&A in the end. The webinar will also be followed by a 30-minute community forum allowing a space for attendees to share any relevant updates from their work and countries.

We are looking forward to meeting you on 3rd February!